News

July 14, 2009

Mexico Man Wins $1 Million Instantly

A Mexico man said winning runs in the family when he claimed the top prize on a "100 Million Dollar Blockbuster" Missouri Lottery Scratchers ticket. Mark Lierheimer, 47, purchased the ticket during a regular stop at Break Time, 1411 W. Monroe St. in Mexico on July 10. He discovered it held the top prize of $1 million while scratching the ticket in his car.

"I knew I had a 40, and when I got down to the 40, I went ahead and stopped and scratched it off," said Lierheimer. "I didn’t go any further. I just left that and went to town."

His first call was to his mother, who happened to be eating breakfast with his brother, Mike. Lierheimer drove to meet them and show them the winning ticket.

Lierheimer said that he has won the top prize in Pick 4 a few times, and that his mom was the grand prize winner of the Lottery’s "Take It Home II" promotion in 2008.

"I went like this," said Lierheimer as he made the motion of lifting his glasses off his eyes. "I wasn’t going to get excited until I made sure the numbers matched up. I looked at the ticket as much as I could and then knew it was the number. It’s unreal."

Plans for the windfall include settling some debt and using the money to pay regular expenses. Lierheimer said that he was leaning toward taking the annuity so that the payments will be spread out over time. Players have the option of taking the prize as a lump sum or as an annuity paid out over 20 years. Either way, the prize will help support Lierheimer’s hobby of playing drums.

"I like to think I have a little something to do with rock-n-roll," said Lierheimer. "I’ve been putting a lot of money into a drum set. We’ll see how it turns out."